Drums are undoubtedly one of the oldest percussion instruments known to mankind, and up until modern times drum heads have been fabricated from stretched animal skins. With the onset of modern technology man made fabrics have been substituted for the animal skins of yore with varying degrees of success.
The most recent advancement in this area of technology involves the use of single and double layered synthetic materials such as plastic and the like; and, at the cutting edge of this technology is the use of Mylar in conjunction with both like and dissimilar materials in a laminated arrangement.
Polyester film such as Mylar has outstanding tensile and impact strength characteristics; however, if a crack or tear develops in the polyester film the drum head will quickly be rendered inoperative, due to to the fact that the polyester film possesses very little tear resistance.
In an effort to achieve an improvement in durability, some manufacturers have produced a two-ply polyester film head. Although this improves durability somewhat in terms of impact, it does not solve the problem of tearing. Once a tear develops one or both plys split immediately thus rendering the head useless.
Other prior art attempts have included laminating cloth, fiberglass cloth or other woven materials to a Mylar drum head. This approach has the disadvantage of degrading resonance, feel and sound properties. It also does nothing to aleviate the problem of tearing.
Inasmuch as these prior art solutions have not produced satisfactory results, there has obviously existed a strongly felt need for a new approach to the construction of a drum head assembly; wherein, the tensile and impact strength of polyester film is retained, while a tear resistance is imparted to this material without materially altering the sound, feel, sensitivity and resonance of the polyester film.
Such an improved drum head construction comprises the subject matter of the present invention.